Push-me Pull-you LEDs

I may never get tired of talking about LED and diode polarities. It’s so much fun. Not long ago, I wrote about two LEDs from the same manufacturer, marked with opposite polarities. I recently ran into another one, but at least this one tells you on the same datasheet.

The image at right is an actual unmodified clip from the datasheet.

I can’t for the life of me understand why this would be done on purpose. I could maybe understand is one was designed in a different building, but it couldn’t have been too hard for someone to say: “Hey – wait a minute…” before sending these things off to manufacturing.

Of course, maybe they built a million before noticing and then just decided it would be easier to change the datasheet. Regardless, it’s kind of nuts in my opinion. The other thing here is that, while you can generally get away with the indicators “+/-” on an LED, you can’t with all diodes. Thin Zener and TVS.

About Duane

Duane is the Web Marketing Manager for Screaming Circuits, an EMS company based in Canby, Oregon. He blogs regularly on matters ranging from circuit board design and assembly to general industry observations.